Deirdré Straughan on Italy, India, the Internet, and the world

Brendan

A few (extremely busy) weeks ago, Brendan Gregg wrote a blog post very different from his usual technical treatises: it was about me. And it’s probably the most romantic thing anyone has ever done for me.

It’s taken me a while to come up with an adequate response – I have been, most uncharacteristically, struck dumb.

“If you have someone that you think is The One, don’t just think… ‘Okay, let’s make a date. Let’s plan this and make a party and get married.’ Take that person and travel around the world… go to places that are hard to go to and hard to get out of. And if when you come back… you’re still in love with that person, get married at the airport.”

Brendan and I have already traveled together extensively, including to several circles of hell – and back. We have got each other through some very hard times, and continue to be there for each other, in sickness and in health, in good times and bad.

For most relationships, that would be more than plenty.

The unexpected bonus is that we are also working partners, caring deeply about many of the same things in the same field (technology), though we bring different skills to the challenges we care about. We spend most of our waking hours discussing and working to make our industry better. We don’t get tired of our work, or of each other.

This still amazes me, and probably always will. But… so does Brendan. And probably always will.